Introduction to System Safety Engineering and Management (ISSM)
Introduction to System Safety Engineering and Management is a well-established Continuous Professional Development Course run by the University of York. Variants of this course were delivered privately to companies and regulators in aviation, railway, maritime, energy, military and other domains for over two decades.
Over the last couple of decades technology has revolutionised engineering and engineering management practices. Essential services that our society depends upon rely on automation and increasingly complex safety critical systems. The level of complexity and innovation means that engineering professionals can no longer rely on standards to provide simple and prescriptive solutions to ensure that their systems and services are adequately safe.
Ever increasing commercial pressures and global supply networks also mean that many organisations and engineers have to be aware of requirements of multiple standards ecosystems.
How do we effectively control technogenic safety risks? How do we assess the risk and make decisions about adequate levels of safety? How do we design that level of safety into our system and integrate this work into overall projects? How do we ensure that our systems continue to be safe through operational life in the context of changes to the systems, operational and even legal environment?
Contact us
Toshiko Smith
CPD Admissions Team (MSc and short course study)
Emily Ellis
Business and Partnerships Team (CPD, bespoke courses and consultancy)
This course provides an overview of system safety as an engineering and management discipline. We present the fundamentals of the discipline along with some of the key techniques in safety engineering and assurance “toolbox”. From risk assessment and making decisions about safety risk to derivation of safety requirements and to production and maintenance of safety cases, the course covers safety engineering, assurance and management activities throughout the systems and services lifecycle from concept development and tendering through design and release into service as well as in-service life until ultimate disposal or termination of service.
Whilst drawing from the key concepts of industrial standards such as IEC61508, ARP 4754/ARP4761, ISO26262 and UK Mil Std 00-056 and using standards for illustration, the course is not concerned with compliance with any particular set of safety standards. Instead, we focus on the fundamentals of the underlying safety engineering and management discipline, making it possible for attendees to interpret requirements of the standards applicable to their industrial domain and to appreciate features of the standards in other domains.
Who is this course for?
Aimed at Engineers and Engineering Managers that work in safety-critical industries, the course provides an overview of key concepts of system safety engineering and management discipline and explains how these are related to systems development, project management and operations / service delivery.
Requirements of key industrial safety standards – such as IEC61508, ARP4754 / ARP4761, ISO26262, Def Stan 00-056 and 00-055, and European Common Safety Method (Railway) – are used to illustrate the concepts covered in lectures and exercises.
The course also provides an overview of key challenges for engineering and assurance of modern complex safety critical systems and services and of the emerging solutions.
Prerequisites
A basic understanding of system safety terminology and life-cycle via prior learning or industrial experience.
If you are unsure about your previous experience, please email the CPD Team at cs-cpd@york.ac.uk so that we can assess your suitability for this course.
Course contents
The topics covered by the course include:
- Financial, legal and ethical motivation for system safety
- Key concepts of safety engineering and the bow tie model of accidents causality
- Safety Lifecycle and its relationship to the overall system lifecycle
- Risk Assessment and Acceptance Criteria (including ALARP principle)
- Safety Assurance and the notion of Safety Case
- Overview of key Safety Analysis techniques: Functional Failure Analysis, HAZOP, Event Tree Analysis, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis.
- Derivation of safety requirements for different classes of systems
- Safety Integrity Levels / Development Assurance Levels and the notion of confidence
- Human Factors for Safety Engineering
- Assurance of Safety Critical Software and Machine Learning
- Safety Management Systems and Organisational Safety
- Through-life management of system safety and operational safety
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, you will:
- Understand risk, principles and role of risk assessment, approaches to risk reduction as well as the factors influencing perception and acceptability of risk;
- Have an understanding of typical safety-critical systems lifecycles and appreciation of approaches to managing safety in organisations, projects, and operations / services ;
- Have an understanding of key safety analysis techniques – such as Functional Failure Analysis (FFA), HAZOP, Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMEA & FMECA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Event Tree Analysis along with their roles in system safety lifecycle;
- Have an appreciation of systematic failures, common causes , human factors, and their importance for system safety;
- Have an understanding of safety assurance and safety cases.
- Have an appreciation of the challenges posed by software, machine learning and autonomy for engineering and assurance of modern safety critical systems
- Understand approaches to managing safety in organisations, projects, and operations / services.
How is this course taught?
Introduction to System Safety Engineering and Management is a blended course combining three days of lectures and exercises in York with some self-study materials both before and after the in-person portion of the course. Before arriving to York you will be asked to undertake about a day-worth of self-study based on our Virtual Learning Environment. This will comprise mostly of pre-recorded lectures with some optional exercises and quizzes.
The in-person part of the course will be delivered at University of York campus over three full days. This part of the course will consist of a mixture of lectures and exercises. Attendees will have an opportunity to work in small groups to apply principles and techniques to practical and yet manageable examples with support from our lecturers.
Further optional self-study materials on more advanced or specialised topics will be made available on the Virtual Learning Environment after the face-to-face part of the course.
During both introductory and concluding self-study periods attendees will be able to ask our lecturers any questions or discuss materials with each other over the online discussion board.
This course is not formally assessed, but quizzes will be provided throughout to aid your training and revision.
When will this course be taught?
This course will run from 6 to 8 June 2023, 9am to 5pm each day.
Pre and post course online material will be made available the week prior to the course.
Meet the lecturers
This timetable is indicative only, and is subject to change.
Introductory self-study
- Introduction and motivation for system safety engineering
- Key safety concepts: Accidents, Incidents, Hazards, Faults and Failures
- System and Safety Lifecycles
- Preliminary Hazard Analysis
In-person / live teaching
Day 1
- Introduction, Recap and Bow Tie model
- Case Study: Piper Alpha
- Risk Assessment: Severity, Probability and Hazard Risk Matrices
- Functional Failure Analysis
- Case Study: Aircraft Ground Deceleration Case Study
Day 2
- Event Tree Analysis
- Case Study: Chemical Plant Containment
- Safety Integrity Levels and Development Assurance Levels
- Risk Acceptance & ALARP principle
- Case Study: Undercarriage Extension Failure
Day 3
- Causal Analysis: Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMEA & FMECA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
- Case Study: Automated Guided Vehicle
- From causal models to quantification: Safety Data & Data Sources
- Case Study: Essential Power Supply
- Safety Assurance and Safety Cases
Concluding self-study (optional)
Recommended topics:
- Setting Safety Requirements
- Common Cause Analyses
- Human Factors for Safety
- Introduction to Safety Critical Software
- Organisational Safety and Safety Management Systems
Further topics:
- Challenges of Autonomous Systems
- Assurance of Machine Learning
- Through-Life and Operational Safety
- Accident Modelling
Enhanced models of accident causality: STAMP & STPA
Book your place
Before you make your booking, please ensure that you have read our booking conditions.
Complete and return the form to cs-cpd
You can also pay for your course online.
You only need to complete the short booking form above, not the booking forms found on the online payment page.
Course fee: £1,800.00 GBP (VAT exempt)
10% discount when registering 3 or more delegates, from the same organisation at the same time.
To make a group booking please contact cs-cpd
Booking conditions
- Acceptance onto a short course is at the agreement of the course leader. They will want to assure themselves that you have the relevant level of background knowledge. You may therefore be asked to provide a CV detailing your knowledge / experience in particular areas.
- Course fees quoted include all relevant course materials, tuition, lunch and refreshments.
- For your place to be confirmed, a completed booking form with Purchase Order or payment is required before the course start date.
- Fees are payable to The University of York. Cheques should be drawn on a UK bank in pounds sterling and made payable to The University of York. Payment may also be made by Visa or Mastercard.
Cancellations
We regret that a fee must be charged when confirmed bookings are cancelled or transferred to future dates. In the event of a cancellation, you may nominate a substitute (acceptance of this substitution is subject to academic and availability conditions). If a suitable substitute cannot be found the following scale of charges will apply:
- 56 days or more before the programme starts ‐ full refund
- 55 days or less ‐ 50% refund
- 28 days or less ‐ 25% refund
- 14 days or less ‐ no refund
We reserve the right to amend published information.
Contact us
Toshiko Smith
CPD Admissions Team (MSc and short course study)
Emily Ellis
Business and Partnerships Team (CPD, bespoke courses and consultancy)